Monday, October 31, 2011

Meet Noah Walker- The Birth Story

It’s funny-I’ve noticed recently that every woman who has had a baby loves to tell the story of their child’s birth. I now know why. It is truly a miracle and an experience I’ll never forget. It was the second best day of my life (besides marrying Matt), and one of those days I will relive over and over again. I’m still in awe by God’s grace and providence over Matt, Noah, and me on October 26th and 27th. We serve such a faithful and mighty God.

The story goes as so……

On October 25th Matt and I had my last check up with my OBGYN. At the appointment, I still hadn’t made much progress in “birthing” signs, so we decided to set up an induction date. I would go into the hospital October 31st, and I would have him sometime November 1st. That night, I started to feel really “crampy.” I thought it was something I’d eaten, turns out, it was contractions. I contracted all Tuesday night and headed into work Wednesday. At work, I still felt really realized these cramps were actually contractions. I was having them about every 30 minutes. I felt miserable. My co-workers could tell- they decided it was time for me to head home and not come back until Noah arrived. Two of my co-workers drove me home and this is where the fun would begin.

I got home and was having contractions that were now coming about every 10 to 12 minutes. They were bearable and I could semi walk them off. By the time we went to bed, they were getting stronger and occurring about every 7 minutes- they were painful- but still bearable. We decided to head into the hospital- I thought I’d have Noah sometime that night. We headed into the hospital and they checked me out. I hung out for about two hours and the doctor decided to send me home. The doctor told me I could contract for the next couple of days, but if she had to bet, I’ve have the baby by the weekend.

When we got home, I was exhausted and fell asleep. I think I slept for about an hour and started waking up in immense pain. The contractions were back with vengeance. I was able to endure it for about 3 hours (until 6 a.m.) and then woke up Matt. As Matt and I were talking, my parents called and my mom wanted to come take care of me. She’s pretty wonderful, and she wanted to make sure I was doing ok. I told her the contractions had gotten worse and I wasn’t feeling so great. She said she’d be over there shortly with my dad. We all agreed I was going into the hospital and I wasn’t coming home until Noah Walker was here. Around 7 am, we reached the hospital and at this point I was in so much pain I could not function. I had a hard time talking and walking- I was in full labor.

After I had my IV, they put the pain medicine in my drip. It was the best decision I ever made to take this medicine, it calmed all my anxiety and I had no problem with accepting that I was about to get many shots.The epidural team came in after that and it wasn’t that bad at all. I was loving life with the pain meds, so I was of course asking their life stories and cracking jokes that I thought were hilarious. This was a night and day difference from how I’d been before the pain meds. During the worst of the contractions, I actually told Matt that Noah would be an only child and I wasn’t doing labor EVER again. Matt replied “yes dear” and said that he was ok with that. To put it lightly, I was a royal mess. (Don’t worry- Noah will have siblings, all that pain was worth it and I’d do it again for all our other kids we hope to have).

After the epidural was in place, I was now headed down a road of no return- Noah was coming. I felt great- my lower half felt completely asleep. It took four bags of fluid to get me hydrated while we waited for more dilation.

During the wait, Matt and my mom read Noah and me children’s books, Dad picked up Chick-fil-a, we told too many family stories, and Ashley Baker arrived. Ashley told me from the very beginning that she would be there. It was amazing and Matt and I feel very blessed to have both her and Luke’s love and support with Noah. We can’t wait to be there when Baby Boy Baker arrives in February.

Snuggle Bug

Anyways, around 4 p.m., there was still no Noah so the nurse decided they may have to try a couple things to speed up the labor. When she checked, I’d actually went from 4 to 9 cms within 2 hours which is very unheard of. Noah would be there within the next hour and a half.Ashley, Mom, and Dad left the room and it was time to push. I swear that within that hour I had a whole squad in my labor room helping with the delivery of Noah. Every time we looked a new nurse was coming in- not that I was at risk- there are just a lot of nurses that help assist with every labor. I pushed for about an hour and at 5:19 Noah Walker Clem arrived. It was not painful and the most amazing experience of my life. Matt and I both were speechless when he came out and I of course shed a couple tears. Matt was such an amazing encourager- he was the perfect cheerleader and I could not have done it without him. Matt cut the umbilical cord and they cleaned Noah up. While cleaning him up, the nurses were got very excited. Noah received a 10 on the APGAR scale. One of the nurses said in her 10 year career, she could count on two hands the 10’s that had been given to new born babies. Most of them get 9’s because their feet and hands are still blue. Noah had PINK FEET.

After they did his weight and vitals, they handed Noah to Matt and I and we bonded as a family for the first time. It was a miraculous day and an experience that Matt and I give God all the glory for! Noah Walker is the most amazing little son and we cannot wait to raise him in a God fearing house where there will be nothing but love.

Me and My Boy!

Sidenote: I have more pictures on my camera. I will load later this week. All the pictures I have access to right now are just from the iphone.